In Dreams (film)

Lore & Background

The film follows Claire Cooper, a suburban housewife and mother who illustrates children's stories. She begins experiencing bizarre dreams involving an underwater city and the murder of a young girl. After her daughter Rebecca goes missing and is found dead in a reservoir, Claire believes her dreams are premonitory. She becomes involved in the police investigation but is met with resistance. Her visions intensify, leading her to a serial killer named Vivian Thompson, who kidnaps little girls to be his playmates. Claire is committed to a psychiatric institution after slitting her wrists but escapes to stop Vivian from claiming another victim. The climax occurs at an abandoned fruit factory, where Vivian holds Claire and a young girl hostage. Claire and Vivian plunge over a waterfall; Claire drowns but has a vision of being reunited with her daughter. Vivian survives and is committed to the same psychiatric institute, where he is haunted by Claire's spirit.

Reader's Guide

In Dreams is notable for its lush, hyper-real visual style, achieved by cinematographer Darius Khondji using filters on camera lenses. Critics praised the film's visuals and Annette Bening's performance, but many criticized its lack of narrative coherence. The film holds a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received a C− from audiences polled by CinemaScore. It is also notable for being one of the first projects at DreamWorks Pictures and for Robert Downey Jr.'s relapse into drugs during filming in September 1997, leading to his arrest in December 1997. The film's underwater sets were created in the same water tank used for James Cameron's Titanic (1997). Co-writer Bruce Robinson criticized the film the year after its release.

Did You Know?

• The film's underwater sets were filmed in the same water tank used for James Cameron's Titanic (1997).
• Robert Downey Jr. relapsed into drugs during filming in September 1997 and was arrested again in December 1997.
• The film is based on the novel Doll's Eyes (1993) by Bari Wood, but the finished screenplay bears practically no resemblance to the book.
• The film grossed $17 million worldwide against a $30 million budget, making it a box-office bomb.